07.23
So I kinda sorta completed my first Facebook app: an app to display Google Reader Shared Items.
Yeah I know it’s been done, that’s not the point. I wanted to see how it’s done, and specifically I wanted to see how to update profiles based on some 3rd party action (in this case “sharing” something w/in Google Reader).
I gotta say, it’s pretty neat. In the case of the Shared Items mentioned above you have a cronned script look at the Shared Items RSS feed and make decisions based on what’s new since the last time it looked. The “righter” way to do it, of course, would be to have the actual act of “sharing” an item update Facebook, but that’s for Google to do, not me.
I think that the most interesting aspect of Facebook is that is can serve as a sorta “meta-blog” where all these various web 2.0 thingys (like Twitter, last.fm, del.icio.us and of course blogs) can dump updates so your Friends can see what you’re up to (um, if they… or you… care about such things).
While I see huge applications for this in my chosen profession, this primarily served as an academic exercise satiating only my geek curiosity, mental calisthenics if you will. Now that it’s done — ok, so it’s not done per se, it’s “proof of concept 80% done” which is “done” to me 
— I have time to read Deathly Hallows.
